Everyone agrees that Bob has toyed with some numbers to see if something interesting may come from it. But once you've done that, I think you have to stick with it a bit. And according to Bob's numbers, introducing a mini-D4 in any form will increase Nikon's profits.

Could
increase profits
slightly
. There is big fricking difference between
will
and
could
,
will
implies some degree of certainty which given the way Bob has plucked profit margins out of thin air is very much lacking.

Exactly. All this is hand waving. The real lesson to draw from it is that another model doesn't
necessarily
produce worthwhile profit or revenue. If I was running Nikon and given real margins and market surveys the return on
either
a D800H or D600 looked as small as in this exercise, I wouldn't go ahead with it, I'd put the effort into something else. This only shows part of their overall picture too, for instance the projected D600 could well hit sales of the D300 replacement (unless it was the D300 replacement)
--
Bob

Perhort must be including not only D800H but D600 in his definition of "mini-D4".

Since there are rumours of a new 24mp Sony FX sensor, maybe that is what will come in a D600. And it will have to be made in Thailand and share the D7000/7100 ecosystem meter and AF modules. But Nikon has priced the D800 so surprisingly low, a $2400 price on a D600 might be too close.

Interesting exercise Bob - I was surprised at how few responses actually selected the D800H given all the complaints when the D800 was first announced. If those were the numbers and I was Nikon, likewise I wouldn't introduce the D800H.